Purdue News
Purdue News
As part of their annual Great Lakes Regional Conference, student members of the American Society of Civil Engineers held concrete canoe races at Indiana Beach in Monticello and also participated in a two-day steel bridge competition on the Purdue campus.
The canoe contest is a series of races in which teams put their concrete design, structural design, and muscle power to the test. The canoes are paddled by two people and range from 15 to 20 feet long. They can weigh from 100 to 250 pounds, depending on the size of the canoe and the mixture of concrete. Special aggregates in the concrete mixtures, along with very precise designs, help make the canoes light and able to float.
The canoes were designed and built by team members for the individual schools during the school year before the competition. Men's, women's and coed teams competed Saturday in both sprint and distance races.
The University of Wisconsin at Madison was the overall winner of the concrete canoe competition and will advance to the national finals in Cleveland June 19-20. The University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign finished in second place, and the University of Illinois at Chicago finished third.
The competition consisted of a total of five races. Three were run on a 200-meter course with one turn; two were on a 600-meter course with seven turns. The University of Wisconsin-Madison won the women's, men's and co-ed races on the 200-meter course and women's and men's race on the 600-meter course. Other teams competing were Purdue University, Bradley University at Peoria , Ill ., Northwestern at Evanston , Ill ., Tri-State University at Angola , Ind ., University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee , and the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
"We were confident that it would stay afloat -- the only thing we were trying to work on was winning the races," said Patrick Marshall from the University of Illinois team. Josh Hess, from Tri-State University, yelled, "Somebody get me a towel," as his canoe broke apart. Members of other teams pitched in to repair the broke vessel.
The steel bridge competition was won by Rose Hulman Institute of Technology at Terre Haute . Team members assembled their bridge in 3:45 minutes, and the bridge withstood the weight of 2,500 pounds. They will compete in the national finals in Pomona, Calif., May 24-25. The University of Illinois placed second, and also will advance to the national finals.
For the steel bridge competition, a different set of teams spent the year developing a structure that maximizes strength while minimizing weight, all within rigid specifications. Each bridge has to span 19 feet and is about 3.5 feet wide, typically weighing between 75 and 100 pounds. The bridges are designed to carry loads of about 2,500 pounds.
Each bridge had to be assembled on-site in less than 30 man-minutes, meaning, for example, that a three-person team could spend only 10 minutes assembling its bridge. Bridges were judged on their appearance, weight, speed and ease of assembly, and how much they "bent," or deflected, under load.
Other schools represented at the conference:
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago ; Indiana Institute of Technology, Fort Wayne ; University of Evansville ; University of Notre Dame; University of Southern Indiana, Evansville ; Valparaiso University; and Marquette University, Milwaukee .
Source: Scott Ivany, Purdue ASCE chapter liaison, (765) 742-4794, e-mail, ivany@ecn.purdue.edu
Writers: Amanda Siegfried, (765) 494-4709; e-mail, amanda_siegfried@purdue.edu
Grady Jones, (765) 494-2079; e-mail, grady_jones@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
